Diverged
by mickeylover303
Summary: "The past is never where you think you left it." - Katherine Anne Porter Gen. AU.


Eh, it's been a bit. Trying to play catch up, dipping my toe in the pool. Also pushing to finish "a certain fic" and go back over others, so this is actually pretty old.

...

**Diverged**

"...it's been two years."

Finally, Sasuke looks up, lips pursed, eyes too dark fading into the backdrop of the sky almost bleak save for a handful of stars. "You weren't supposed to find me."

"Yeah, well...I did." Stealing a casual glance, Naruto gives a half-shrug, gaze following the cracks along pieces of chipped concrete making up what's left of the roof's ledge. "Plan on running out on me again?"

There's a derisive snort.

"Figures." Naruto scoffs, shaking his head, smile uneven, strained. Hands rammed into his pockets, palms sweaty, fingers _twistingflexingcoilingsqueezing_ inside his jacket not reaching to grab Sasuke, hard, he swallows. "...the things I've done for you, Sasuke. The things I'd _still_ do for you. But knowing you don't..."

The right corner of Sasuke's mouth rises, drawn into a crooked line, a slight smirk mocking all the soft smiles and careful whispers harbouring secrets of _Itachi_ and _Orochimaru _and _Madara _he only told Naruto.

Except Naruto didn't understand then, couldn't when they were both twelve and monsters like Orochimaru and Madara were only supposed to exist in fairy tales and obscure folklore nobody bothered to remember anymore, and the Sasuke he once thought he knew became wrapped up in cryptic words and smug grins jarring against vacant eyes that suddenly made him seem so far away.

"...I can't."

Naruto scowls, hands tearing out of his pockets, before Sasuke decides to leave him again his fists seizing, hasty fingers clutching, grasping at thin fabric to bring Sasuke within reach. The tremble racking his shoulders travels along tense arms, all the way down to the ache in his knuckles from gripping too tight, holding too long, but this time, Sasuke lets him.

This time, Sasuke doesn't make him let go.

"Bull, Sasuke," he hisses, "that's bull, and you know it. You're the one who never gave anybody a chance to care about you! You're the one who never gave me the chance to—"

Another snort, another crooked upturn of his lips not quite a smirk, listless in the arms walls trying to keep him in, Sasuke tilts his head back to watch the sky. "Didn't I use to tell you ghosts aren't real?"

"...don't say that. It's not true, so stop saying stuff like that."

"There's no point in fighting something you can't see. And if no one was there to see, then maybe it never happened."

"Shut up, Sasuke. Stop acting like this_. _Stop acting like—"

"In the end, it wouldn't have made a difference, anyway. It wouldn't have been enough."

"Not enou—" The words become a garbled noise lodged in the back of Naruto's throat, a choked sound, raw like the burning behind his eyes shut too tight, and he pulls himself closer, forehead dropped on Sasuke's shoulder, hands dragging and fingers clinching, clinging, afraid to let go. "How can you just— anything for you, Sasuke. Everything I did, a thousand times, every time—but I already made a promise, didn't I? No matter what happens. And you know I don't go back on my promises, so don't make me break this one, okay. I just want to..."

"...I know."

"They why won't you let me—"

"You never did know how to listen. Tch. Wasting so much time on me instead of living your own life, you're such an idiot."

"Why do you always have to be so stupid about this? It's not my fault, all right. It's not. I know you like to blame me for not understanding, but it's not fair how you can make me feel guilty for something I couldn't do anything about. And even though you—"

Grasping tighter, squeezing harder, shoulders hunched, against Sasuke unresponsive Naruto sniffs. He blinks and licks his lips.

"For once, I just want you to let me be there. I want you to believe me when I say you don't have to depend on yourself all the time. That you can depend on me sometimes, too. And trying to get you to understand that, maybe that's my way of saying living my own life means wanting to live it with you. Because there's nothing, Sasuke, _nothing_ I wouldn't—"

Naruto stills, swallows when he feels Sasuke shift in his arms. Lifting his head, he looks up, eyes a little bleary as he tries to smile, tries to grin when Sasuke offers back a small glimpse of something not quite a smirk and a lot less crooked.

But then it's gone. Sasuke starts to push away. While he begins to stand, Naruto continues to sit, arms fallen over his lap, and there he stays, lets this moment become yet another time he watches Sasuke slip away.

Back facing him, abrupt, Sasuke pauses, eyes fixed on the sparse path of small lamps low to the ground leading to the door straight ahead. The wind's a whisper barely heard, seemingly out of place so early in the summer, a light breeze that plays with dark hair, whips across dry cheeks.

"Whether I want you to be or not, Naruto, you..." Sasuke's body turns stiff, arm all but shaking, hand clenched at his side. "I'm sorry."

Again, Naruto sniffs. He wipes his left eye with the back of his right hand, fingers curled into his palm, refusing to look away. Slowly, he breathes out, disappointment still heavy in his chest when he takes in a deep breath.

He doesn't know what hurts more. The apology he knows Sasuke means or the inevitable words that always follow.

"...you're still not enough."


End file.
